Dilemma of Geoconservation of Monogenetic Volcanic Sites under Fast Urbanization and Infrastructure Developments with Special Relevance to the Auckland Volcanic Field, New Zealand

Abstract

Geoheritage is an important aspect in developing workable strategies for natural hazard resilience. This is reflected in the UNESCO IGCP Project (# 692. Geoheritage for Geohazard Resilience) that continues to successfully develop global awareness of the multifaced aspects of geoheritage research. Geohazards form a great variety of natural phenomena that should be properly identified, and their importance communicated to all levels of society. This is especially the case in urban areas such as Auckland. The largest socio-economic urban center in New Zealand, Auckland faces potential volcanic hazards as it sits on an active Quaternary monogenetic volcanic field. Individual volcanic geosites of young eruptive products are considered to form the foundation of community outreach demonstrating causes and consequences of volcanism associated volcanism. However, in recent decades, rapid urban development has increased demand for raw materials and encroached on natural sites which would be ideal for such outreach. The dramatic loss of volcanic geoheritage of Auckland is alarming. Here we demonstrate that abandoned quarry sites (e.g., Wiri Mountain) could be used as key locations to serve these goals. We contrast the reality that Auckland sites are underutilized and fast diminishing, with positive examples known from similar but older volcanic regions, such as the Mio/Pliocene Bakony–Balaton UNESCO Global Geopark in Hungary.

Characterisation and Evaluation of Columnar Basalt Geoheriatge in Thailand: Implication for Geotourism Management in Post-Quarrying Area

“…According to the strength, the basalt terrain in Buriram was exploded for rock quarry for construction in the past. Thus, this area is the post-mining area that should be developed for a good environment and better livelihood of local people nowadays, similar to basalt quarrying sites in England, France, New Zealand, Poland and Spain as well as Su Nuraxi di Barumini, the World Heritage Site in Italy (Maria Mateos et al 2011, Migoń, Pijet-Migoń 2016, Prosser 2018, Careddu, Grillo 2019, Comentale 2019, Nemeth et al 2021. Many undergraduate students from various universities (Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai, Buriram Rajabhat universities) come to research this post-mining area in both geology and tourism to increase educational value (Fig.…”

The interplay between environmental and magmatic conditions in eruption style transitions within a fissure-aligned monogenetic volcanic system of Auckland, New Zealand

“…1): one of the southernmost volcanic centres in the AVF, the classification of volcanic facies architecture and reconstruction of the eruptive history. Over the last century, quarrying has removed the majority of the volcanic complex (Hayward et al, 2011;Németh et al, 2021), resulting in the exposure of near vent and crater infill deposits. Therefore, despite the near complete removal of the Wiri Mountain scoria cone and most of the tuff rings, the remaining deposits provide a unique opportunity to document a highresolution stratigraphy.…”

“…Therefore, despite the near complete removal of the Wiri Mountain scoria cone and most of the tuff rings, the remaining deposits provide a unique opportunity to document a highresolution stratigraphy. Such a possibility is not a common occurrence in Auckland where urban development has restricted access to many centres and, in some cases, removed them entirely (Gravis et al, 2020;Németh et al, 2021). The well-exposed tuff ring to capping magmatic succession allows us to develop high-resolution documentation of the eruption deposits and related eruption style changes at one of the largest volcanoes of Auckland.…”

Visitation Rate Analysis of Geoheritage Features from Earth Science Education Perspective Using Automated Landform Classification and Crowdsourcing: A Geoeducation Capacity Map of the Auckland Volcanic Field, New Zealand

“…All these attributes are non-quantitative and are non-scientific disciplines, there is no directly measurable indicator that would safeguard their existence in a rapidly growing urban area. These principles work, however, if there is a visitation flow over a certain threshold value that is measured as instrumental value and applied against opportunity loss and successful conservation is allowed [15,16].…”